


Children of Kaine: The New Normal

by KPenDragon



Series: Children of Kaine Saga [7]
Category: Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Learning to move on, Mpreg, Other, Street Kids, Teenage Pregnancy, hiding from the law, intersex clone, no dating yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 17:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10035620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KPenDragon/pseuds/KPenDragon
Summary: Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider, is not dead, but only Jessica Jones knows this, and she's not too keen on getting onto S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar herself.  The Web Warriors are still living out of the Academy, and adapting to life without members of their team. Sometimes life is hard when things change, super powers and saving the day just make it all the harder. This is their new normal now.





	1. Part 1

Nothing felt right. No, that wasn’t entirely true. Nothing felt like anything. No right, no wrong, there was just no feeling whatsoever.

“So this is what you wanted to show me Zola?”

That voice was muffled, but the moment he heard it, it was like a shot of electricity shot through him. Every nerve ending was on fire, and when before he could feel nothing, now everything was screaming in pain. He tried to thrash, to pull away, but his movements felt sluggish, dragged down, as if hitting a resistance. His eyes snapped open, but could find no focus; everything was distorted and blurred out. The air stung his eyes, begged him to stop what little pain he could. But he had to know where he was, who was out there, what was happening.

“Very interesting,” the muffled voice continued.

He caught the vaguely darker shape move around him; he tried to turn to follow it, but the movement just caused him more pain and he tried to cry out. But no sound came, and the air weighed in thick upon him. No not air; it was some sort of gel. He felt like he was drowning for a moment, but he did not die. Why was he not drowning? What was going on? Who was out there??

“And you say this was completed with those samples that Osborn left abandoned?”

“Indeed Octavius.”

There was another voice, but not another shape. He tried to reach out, trying to ignore the pain, but still he met resistance that felt stronger than his jellied surroundings.

“Quite fascinating,” the first voice mused, “Shame Norman’s not amongst us to elaborate their origins.”

“Enough of your posturing Octavius, can do you do it or not?”

“I am insulted at your lack of faith in my skills Zola. Of course I can fix your mistakes; I can even improve upon them a ten fold without even breaking a sweat.”

There was movement from the other side; he tried to turn fast but there was a sharper pain stabbing at his side at that. He cried again, only choking half as much as he had the first time. He tried to reach for his side where the pain had been, seeing a redness start to color the jellied air. He felt his touch; one hand, two hands, three…what??

“Oh dear, it looks like he’s ripped one of his feeder tubes,” the voice did not sound concerned at all as two bright red spots veered closer to him, “No matter, it’s a trivial annoyance. Soon I will be tearing you apart and putting you back together piece by piece…”

He tried to reach for the orbs, tried to reach to touch something, anything to ground him. What was going on, what was any of this?? But all he met was a solid plate, no doubt the tube he was being kept in. That was not surprising. What was that that was not his hand. A dark brown, three fingered, clawed appendage was where he felt his hand being. That couldn’t be, he couldn’t be-

“Soon you will be the perfect slayer Kaine.”  
\---  
He jolted awake in a cold sweat, with barely enough reaction time to bite down on his hand to stop himself from screaming out. His heart was racing, his senses were screaming at him to react. There was danger, he was in danger, he needed to kill, he needed to protect. But his spider-sense was quiet, his training was lying, his instincts knew better.

His eyes adjusted fairly rapidly to the dim light in the small room. Taking a look around gave him the time he needed to let his breathing and heart rate slow. Everything was where it was supposed to be in the small apartment. There was next to no furniture in the room, aside from the couch he was sleeping on, and the recliner where his companion was curled up in. There was a lone lamp sitting near the door, the farthest outlet from the windows. Two backpacks, their belongs were by the lamp, waiting if they needed to make a fast exit. And all of the doors, aside from the one to the bathroom, were as closed as they had been when he went to sleep. Everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be.

He glanced back over at the sleeping girl, making sure he hadn’t woken her up, and then he lay back down with a low sigh and an arm cast over his eyes. This had been going on for weeks now. 

It’d been 4 weeks since the Hellicarrier had crashed into the bay, and he, Scarlet Spider-Ben Reilly, had been fished out of the wreckage by the mysterious Jessica Jones, who had since become his only friend and companion in the world. He hadn’t dared return to S.H.I.E.L.D., not after what he had done to his team, his friends, his family. The world was better off with Scarlet Spider dead he figured, and Ben Reilly certainly couldn’t afford to go to jail in an undisclosed location right now…

“The dream again?”

He peeked out from under his arm, and there was Jessica, curled up under her fleece blanket in that recliner, but watching him in the dim light. Seems he had woken her up after all…curse her ability to be a light sleeper.

“You ok?”

He scoffed, looking away from her, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He readjusted the arm that had been over his face to be behind his head, while the other slid down to rest over his slightly thickening middle. She caught the movement and sat up more, being more awake now.

“You don’t seem fine.”

“It’s just a dream Jess, it’s not a big deal.”

“Well, there are dreams, and then there are flashbacks. I get them too you know, when people go through stuff like we do, it happens, and-hey!”

He growled slightly as she started the same old speech, and had rolled out of his makeshift bed and headed for the bathroom. She glared at the mostly shut door, trying to will her stare to burn through it and into his thick skull. 

Jessica Jones was not exactly the queen of sharing, but she knew how to read people, and how to get people to open up, even when they didn’t want to. Except when it came to Ben Reilly it seemed. She could read him like an open book sure; nothing but angst (which was annoying as anything), but getting the kid to open up was like pulling teeth. Everybody had secrets, but sometimes those secrets would eat you alive before you finally realized they needed to be let out. She hated seeing him beating himself up like this, but really, how can you help someone who doesn’t want to be helped?

The truth was, he didn’t think anyone could help him. As said, this “dream” had been reoccurring for weeks now. It started sometime after he came out of the bay, but only started getting more frequent after the whole Symbiote invasion. Even after he woke up, he couldn’t remember everything that happened in the dream, only pieces and fragments. The most he could get out of it was that it had to have been a laboratory, and Ock was there, and he called him _Kaine_ …but what all of that meant, he had no idea. Jessica had tossed various theories at him, he’d gone through one or two “dream books” at the library, but really, none of that had done him any good. And he was not going to talk to any of the shrinks at the shelter, that was for sure.

He splashed a third handful of water on his face, trying to focus on his breathing. He finally looked up into the mirror, looking back at his reflection in the dim. He hated how fast his hair had been growing lately; the brown and blonde bangs scattered across his face, only making the bags under his eyes seems deeper and darker than they really were. At least they downplayed his scar; that was the only good thing about having hair it seemed. He sighed, running a hand up and over his face, and simultaneously rising his bangs back as the hand ran down to the back of his neck.

“You’re fine,” he said to the mirror, then his glance shifted down, “We’re fine.”

It was still hard to believe that after everything he’d been through that he was still pregnant. How had his life gotten so out of control in only a 3 month time span? Then again, it wasn’t much of a life to begin with, so it was probably easier to spiral into a disaster, huh? He went from a genetically altered double agent, created to take down multiple spy organizations and destroy teenaged superheroes, to a homeless pregnant teenager longing to go back home to the “family” he’d betrayed. His enhanced biology had betrayed him and forced the one person he had some possible romantic inclinations towards (after a few group sessions at the shelter, he could finally admit that he had felt some attraction for Flash after all) to “mate” with him, resulting in his current predicament, and forcing him to throw away his entire mission objective to save the people he’d grown to care about, even though he knew they’d never be able to forgive him for what he’d done, or how he was now. Scarlet Spider had been a royal screw up of a mess.

He shook his head, and headed out of the bathroom. He clicked the light off and raised an eyebrow at finding his roommate not in her makeshift bed, but rather stuffing her blanket into her designated backpack.

“Going somewhere Jessie?”

“Well, since we’re up, figured we could hit up the Starkbucks on 7th before heading to the shelter for check in and food.”

“Oh really now? This isn’t another of your tricks to try to get me to that clinic downtown.”

She shot him a look for that, “You really think I’d try to bribe you with doughnuts to go see a doctor? What kind of a monster do you think I am?”

“The stupid kind,” he huffed, coming over to fold up his own blanket now too, following her lead.

They had moved out of the shelter after he’d told her about the pregnancy; there’d be too many questions if they’d stuck around there 24/7. But the place was great with walk-ins, it was mostly they just wanted to make sure the kids were taken care of, even if they weren’t under their roof. Thus how they came to squatting in this vacant apartment for the past two weeks; no one seemed to be buying, and the water was on, so until the snow hit it was a great find.

“I am insulted Reilly, really, I am,” she feigned hurtful scorn at that, “Do you really think so little of me, that I would abuse the almighty power that is the Starkbucks like that?”

“If you thought it’d work, sure,” he pulled out his blue hoodie before shoving his blanket into his bag as well, “But it won’t. I told you why doctors are out of the question.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’re having a baby. You really should be getting some help with that.”

“That’s why I keep you,” he shrugged on the hoodie, zipping it up to help cover himself up.

“Yeah, uhhu,” she shouldered her bag, “Let’s just remember who pulled whom out of the dumpster and keeps them around, thank you very much.”

“You’re never going to let me live that down are you?”

“Nope, not while it gives me leverage.”

He just shook his head, earning a smirk from her. The two teens then left the apartment through the front door, making sure to lock it and replacing the card in the hinge like they always did as a safeguard against finding out their pad was occupied. The whole building was only half filled, most of the tenants having moved out after the last Chitauri attack on New York had taken down a building just a block over. That’s what made this place a great spot to stay; few people, and it held up against aliens.

The street was fairly empty, few people cluttering the sidewalks, some even saying morning to Jessica; even the bums clocked in to do the 9 to 5 it seems. They headed down the block to the metro station, taking turnstile 4 because it was broken, and hopping on the Green Line. This was pretty much the routine every morning now. At first, Ben had had some trouble getting the timing down, or remembering which stop went where, but by this point he was getting pretty used to it. Jessica knew the city front to back it seemed; honestly without her he would have been lost, he wasn’t ashamed to admit. 10 minutes in the tube, then they were back out to street level, heading for the bakery on the corner of 7th.

It wasn’t open yet, they were up early after all, so the two of them parked it on the street right outside the door to wait. Jessica had her phone out and started flipping through whatever messages she’d missed out on while asleep; Ben never asked what she was into, really not wanting to get in the middle of her business anymore than he already had, but also because she never seemed to be willing to talk about it. She always seemed to have something going on, and mixing that with her extreme dislike for authority figures, he could only guess at the legitimate natures of her interests, but again he wasn’t really one to talk now was he.

“So, got your ID?” she asked without looking up from her phone.

“Do I have my…you should be the one to talk,” he mumbled, searching the outer pockets of his backpack for the fake ID one of the other shelter kids had printed up for him; this bakery happened to give college kids a free small coffee with any purchase before noon and after seven, “Wallah.”

“Good, you won’t starve today then,” she cracked a grin at that with a quick look up at him before going back to her screen.

He just shook his head and half heartedly kicked her feet with his, due to them taking up opposite sides of the doorway to make sure no yuppy day-traders would snipe their spots to get in. While she continued her surfing, he just leaned back and rested his eyes; he couldn’t help feeling tired these days, and the lack of sleep wasn’t helping much. Even just a few minutes resting on the street like this would help; Jessica had his back after all.

The minutes ticked by, the girl eventually got to the last of her updates, but in finding her companion dozing off, she just settled back and kept a quiet watch. It eventually hit 6:47 am, and that’s when the counter guy came to open the door, having seen the two familiar forms from inside the glass. The guy looked to be at most a decade older than the two of them, dressed in his white uniform.

“Early today, huh Jonesy?”

“Morning Manny,” she grinned, turning up the charm, “How kind of you to notice.”

He just shook his head with a smile, “C’mon in and warm up a bit, doughnuts will be rolling in 5.”

“Sweet,” she started to get up then reached to shake her friend’s knee, “Hey, Ben, wake up.”

He jerked a little, just from the suddenness of it. But realizing that the door was open, he too was fast to his feet, grabbing his bag and rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he followed her in. There were a few chairs inside, trying to cater to the hipster scene without giving them a takeover like certain other coffee shops. The two teens flopped into a matching set of them, finding the plastic leather only slightly more comfortable than the concrete outside.

“So,” Jessica spoke up, drawing his attention to her, “I got a place to be after role call, you wanna tag along?”

“Depends, does this “place” have four men with questionable Asian ethnicities and combat training like the last “place” you invited me to?”

“Ok, that was not my fault. In my defense, I should’ve known better than to trust a law student.”

He rolled his eyes, missing the connection between the two ideas, if there even was any (you couldn’t tell with her sometimes).

“Seriously, what else you got going on huh? Gonna go stalk your girlfriend?”

He snapped a hard glare at her for that comment. She matched it with her own steely glare.

“I told you-”

“You weren’t stalking. You were checking to see if she’d come back. Yeah, I know, but going back three or four times counts as stalking there buddy boy. Trust me, I know.”

He looked away now, as he usually was the one to fail these stare downs.

“Look Reilly, if you wanna go home, then just go home.”

“I can’t Jones.”

She huffed and slouched back in her seat, shoving her hands into her sweatshirt pockets, once again being the one to give up on this argument. There felt like a thin layer of tension between them after that, like usual; they were a wonderfully paired set of thick headed fools who hated their feelings.

“So you wanna come or not,” she finally mumbled.

“You never answered my first question.”

“No ninjas, I swear.”

“Yeah, ok.”

While they’d been waiting, more people had filtered in and a line had started to form. Neither of them seemed too bothered by it; they were used to the dirty looks the suited up Wall Streeters gave the disheveled teenagers who lived out of their backpacks. Finally, the counter guy called out “Jones and Reilly!” and Jessica hopped right up there, bypassing the whole line (to a few angry mutters) to pay for and collect their standing order he knew so well. As she bounced back, she dropped his bag with doughnut in it into his lap as she scooped up her bag,

“C’mon, time to hit the pavement.”

He grabbed his belongings too, and the pair of them barely were able to squeeze out the doorway due to the ever growing line (seriously, who do lines never move to allow people to leave when they’re trying to get in?). There were more people on the street now as the working class was waking up and heading out on their daily grind. Jessica nursed her medium coffee; Manny always upsized their two into one since Ben wouldn’t drink his. While Ben was walking while maneuvering to put his bagged doughnut into his backpack.

“Not hungry, you?”

“Not yet. Rather see what the shelter has first.”

“Oh I know what they have; it’s gross suck, that’s what.”

“Still better than starving.”

“Barely.”

It was about three blocks to the shelter in Hell’s Kitchen from where they were, and if they didn’t hurry, all that would be left of the breakfast would be “extra gross”.


	2. Part 2

The sounds of beating upon something not metal echoed down the hallway. This area of the complex wasn’t used all that often, seeing as the enhanced populous needed the advanced training room to properly hone their skills, while the regular staff had other options for their workouts aside from the company on-site gym. But every now and then someone would use it, which made it a good place to get away to be alone, and one of the last places most would go to look for you. And yet…

Peter knew this was where Flash had been going off to at about the same time every day, right after their first seminar let out. It was the old sports training kicking back in; a steady regiment of practice kept one focused on things and driven to the end goal faster. It was how the jock worked through things, and there had been a lot of things to work through as of late. So he let him go, he didn’t draw attention to it. But today…

“A giant beanbag put up more fight than the LMDs?”

The blonde finished his one-two comb against the punching bag, then caught it on the swing back. He was only mildly out of breath, having been going at this full force on his own steam, holding the symbiote back, proving to himself that he could still be human. He looked past the steadying bag, seeing Peter standing in the doorway to the workout room, maskless but otherwise in costume.

“What can I say, breaking robots gets boring after a while.”

“Said no one ever before.”

They both had a bit of a chuckle at that. The brunette stepped more into the room, while the blonde went to the side where he had left his gym bag to grab up a towel and some water.

“So what you want Pete?” he asked after taking a needed swig, “Sorta busy here.”

“Just checking in, we don’t see you much around the house these days. Aunt May misses you.”

He shrugged. “No point. Miles leaving, Cho leaving, Ben…” he snapped the bottle shut, “It’s your house dude, we just screw it up.”

“Flash…”

“Don’t Pete,” he cut off the all too familiar words he was sure were coming.

After the Hellicarrier crash there had been so many talks with S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliated shrinks. He didn’t need to hear about none of that was his fault; he hadn’t even been a part of that fight, he hadn’t been able to do anything about any of it… Survivors guilt they called it, but honestly, he was just feeling useless. He had missed all the signs, he had been unable to help when he was needed most. If only he had been able to do something, anything, when Ock had attacked. Maybe then everything would be alright, maybe then everything, everyone…

“Everything’s different, changing.”

“Flash, I…I know what it’s like to loose people close to you, how much changes like that hurt. But you, you just keep going the best you can.”

“Thought I said don’t,” he muttered, dropping the gym gear and moving to go back to the punching bag.

He sighed a little, rubbing the back of his head as was his nervous habit.

“It’s fine Pete, don’t go worrying about me, I got this.”

“Yeah, ok…” he didn’t really buy that, but he also knew how thick headed the ex-jock was, and he really hadn’t come here to start a fight with his friend either, “I just came down here to see if you were coming to Miles’ house warming party later.”

“Don’t you need a house for that.”

“Apartment, house, same difference. It’s free food, and fun,” he tried, “And Aunt May has missed you, really.”

“I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes,” he squared back up against the punching bag, “Somebody has to be on call if something goes wrong.”

“You know, sometimes you need to take time to be who you are without the costume.”

“What do you think I’m doing down here,” he muttered again, then started his first few warm up swings.

Peter sighed again, knowing there was nothing else to be gained from pressing this more. He turned to leave the blonde back to his training.

“When’s the party at?”

He paused, looking back as the blonde held the punching bag steady waiting a response.

“Uh…6, 7 maybe?”

Flash nodded then went back to his punching. Seeing that that was the end of that, Peter turned back to continue on leaving; he had other duties that needed attending after all, S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy to pretend he knew how to run, recruits to train, a city to protect.

He just wished he knew how to help his friends…even when they didn’t want it…  
\---  
They’d been sitting in the park for a few hours now. This was something Ben really hated about his life now, just how inactive he was. He still wasn’t sure if this was a stakeout or a meeting that Jessica had dragged him to, but the bribe of a hoggie had long since been used up and now he was getting beyond bored.

“How much longer is this going to take?”

Jessica didn’t look at him as he spoke, instead her focus was at the Starkbucks across the street; every few minutes she’d lift her camera up to take a closer look at whatever her quarry was over there. Seeing that he was being ignored, he chose to get up from the bench they’d laid claim to.

“Where you going?” she finally spoke up, yet still didn’t look away.

“I’m done here. 3 hours is my limit for waiting around and doing nothing.”

“Yeesh, figured you’d like want to enjoy the downtime you could get while you still can.”

“Yes, because sitting in a park for hours on end doing nothing is just the type of quality content I want to be spending my downtime on. Right.”

“You know, with that type of attitude, you’d be a horrible P.I.”

“Well I learned it by watching you.”

She did look away from her lens now at him, eyebrow cricked in a “seriously?” gesture for that remark. It was really only after he said it he realized how stupid it had sounded.

“Oh look, a guy in a trench coat.”

“What?” she turned back around and saw a new body arrive on the scene she had been so intently watching before. “Oh shit,” she pulled her camera up and took a few snaps, then shoved it at him, “Here, make sure you get the two of us, if things go south, head to Josie’s.”

“Whoa, wait, what do you mean “go south”??”

But he was asking empty air that question, as the girl had already made it halfway across the street at a mild jog. Apparently this was a meeting it seemed, and Ben was to be her insurance policy…again.

“Oh if this ends in ninjas again, I’m going to kill you Jones,” he mumbled under his breath as he brought the camera to eyelevel and followed her movements.

On the other side of the street, at the Starkbucks, Jessica Jones was meeting with a man in a trench coat. There was nothing particularly noteworthy of the man in appearance or manners, and that was the point. She slid into the empty seat at the table he’d taken up, no doubt spouting off one of her quips; the man seemed not impressed with it. She leaned forward then, pulling a flash drive from her sweatshirt pocket, causing the man to nod. After another moment or two, he slid his hand across the table towards her, making her put the drive down and doing the same. Then after another beat she was back up, waving off her farewell, and walking off with the man’s cup of coffee.

The whole exchange was barely five minutes, but he kept having photos at regular intervals none the less. Even as she got closer, he still documented the man’s exit.  
“Well that went way better than expected,” she plopped down beside him on the bench now, bringing the coffee to her lips, “Oh gross, decaf. I guess that means you can have it momma.”

He shot her a sharp look for that, but glossed over it for now, “Do I even want to know what that was about?”

“Just a personal project I’ve been working on for a while.”

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow, “You don’t do “personal” anything.”

“Hey, you gonna give me the third degree, or do you wanna go head back for evening meal?”

Before he could rebuke her, his stomach betrayed him by growling quite loudly at the mention of food. He glared at the offending body part, while she just smirked.

“I say that’s 2 against 1, majority rules.”

“Doesn’t count, you know…”

“How you’ll eat anything and everything in sight these days, yeah I do,” she got up, shouldering her backpack, and putting the camera strap back around her neck, “It’s called playing to your advantages.”

“It’s called playing to your advantages,” he mumbled mockingly as he too got up with his backpack, “I hate you.”

“Naw, you love me. C’mon Reilly,” she hooked his arm in hers, “I’ll even let you have one of my chicken nuggets.”

They were walking now, heading for the closest subway entrance to the park.

“I thought it was taco night.”

“See, I love you so much, I’m willing to forgo my taco rations so you can have extra chicken nuggets. What a good best friend I am.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Oh?”

“No one said you were my best friend.”

She smirked. “Uhhu, keep telling yourself that. Loser.”  
\---  
The apartment wasn’t anything too special in comparison to some places, but to the Morales it was perfect. After Rio Morales had followed her son to another dimension, she hadn’t really known what to expect. But S.H.I.E.L.D. had done everything in its power to make the transition and assimilation as easy as possible, but it was really May Parker that had done the trick. May had helped Rio find a place to live, and even find a job; she had made the new Spider-mom feel at home even though she was as far from that as possible.

“Do you think we have enough dip?”

The older woman chuckled as she emptied another jar of salsa into a dish. “For a party filled with teenage boys, never.”

“Ha, you’re right, silly me. I’m just still not used to Miles having so many friends around.”

“Oh I know, took me a little bit of an adjustment to get used to Peter and his friends. You’ll be fine.”

Rio nodded, stepping back to admire their handiwork. “Well, hopefully it will do until those pizzas arrive.”

“If not,” May pointed out as she started picking up trays, “I’m sure someone will sneak off for tacos like usual.”

In the living room, the super teens were all gathered with solo cups filled with various sodas. Alexander was half-perched on the back of the sofa over-selling some story of his galactic travels to a Tandy who sat with Danny’s arm around her. Anya was sitting on the other arm of the same couch, talking about some sort of band with Miles. Amadeus was bragging about the internship he had coming up with Bruce Banner, and how he’d be leaving in a week or two, to a strangely interested Doreen that kept surprising him with oddly specific science related questions. Harry was by the beverages, trying to impress MJ with his “cup juggling trick” and failing as usual. While Ty and Luke were in another corner, laughing about some stupid joke the other had said.

It warmed Peter’s heart to see all of his friends together in such a casual setting. Sometimes they totally needed to do this, to just be regular teenagers, to get away from the life of crime fighting that was so dangerous…

A knock at the door caught only his attention it seemed. He wasn’t really sure who else would be coming at this point, but since the adults were starting to serve food, he moved to go and answer it.

“Flash?? Hey!”

“You seem surprised Pete. You did invite me.”

“Yeah, no I know, I just thought…I mean you…”

“Flash?” seems May had caught sight of the exchange at the door and now had pushed her way past her nephew to embrace and pull the blonde in, “It’s so good to see you.”

“Good to see you too May,” he cracked half a smile for her there.

“You doing ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just been busy.”

“Well, you’re about to be busier then,” she grinned and hooked her arm through his so there was no chance he’d be able to escape the party now, “Everyone look, Flash made it!”

The rest of the party paused what they were doing and all greeted him. As he was dragged in to interact, Flash looked back to Peter for any sort of help at escaping his aunt. The brunette offered no such aid though, finding the situation rather humorous that it was happening to someone else for once, but also feeling that this could be a big help in getting his friend out of the funk he was in.

That or…he’d be blamed for it being made worse. But that was a risk he was willing to take.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you don't follow my tumblr, you missed the April Fool's gag earlier, so feel free to see it now http://orig12.deviantart.net/d878/f/2017/086/b/5/cok_april_fools_by_kpendragon-db3rpy6.png


	3. Part 3

The party was still in full swing; it was really amazing how much entertainment a dozen teenagers could have with solo cups, pizza, and super spicy salsa. Flash had stayed inside for the most part, engaging with his friends, his teammates, his family, but when Alexander had broken out the ping pong balls, he’d taken the opportunity to slip outside for some air. And by “slip outside” that really meant that he climbed out the window and was more or less sitting of the side of the apartment building in his full Venom suit, since the apartment itself lacked a balcony.

He was…trying. Things just hadn’t been right for a long time now with him, ever since Anti-Venom had taken him out of commission for those weeks there. The S.H.I.E.L.D. shrink had called it a “mild depression” at the time while he was in recovery, but he’d just thought it would have gone away by now, since he was back in action and all. But it hadn’t…not really anyways. Before, in the wheel chair, he’d been useless, unable to do anything physically; now, he was active, he kept up his training but the feeling of uselessness was still there, it still lingered.

He felt the nudging at the back of his mind that he’d come to know as the symbiote’s presence.

“I’m not thinking of jumping, sheesh,” he mumbled, “Don’t worry buddy.”

“Well that’s good.”

Flash jumped, startled by the sudden new voice; he almost fell from the building at the surprise too. But his footing held as he stood perpendicular to the structure’s surface, finding his friend leaning out the widow he’d exited through not too long ago.

“Dude, don’t do that!”

“Sorry. So this is where you went off to.”

“What, like you’ve never gone out for air,” he resettled himself, looking more like he was leaning against the building with his arms crossed now (having full bodied stickiness was useful like that). The symbiote mask now retracted so they could converse in a more civilized manor, “What you need Pete?”

“Just, you know, wanted to check in with my best bro.”

“Don’t you mean Osborn?” he huffed at that, still slightly sore at times about Harry’s fresh enrollment to the Academy with them.

“Harry might be my best friend, but you’re my best bro Flash.”

“That sounded really lame Parker.”

“Yeah I know,” he grinned a little sheepishly.

“But thanks.”

Silence hung there for a few moments, the blonde offering nothing else and the brunette unsure how to move forward.

“Flash…”

“I’m fine Pete.”

“I know. I just…”

What a reversal of roles this was, honestly. The school nerd trying to talk the popular jock into going back to socializing; it broke like every high school trope one could think of. Flash was supposed to be the socialite, be the talkative one, the engaging one. Sure, Peter was the snarky funny one, but this new dynamic, it was just…wrong.

“…I’m here, you know.”

“I know.”

“So…” not really wanting to drag this out to further awkwardness, “You wanna come back inside?”

“Naw. I think I might just do a patrol sweep then head back to the Academy and get some sleep.”

“You do know that Fury did give us the night off, all of us. I’m sure he’s got patrols covered.”

“Bad guys don’t give us nights off.”

“I know, but-”

“It’s ok Pete,” his mask started to reform, “I just don’t feel like a party right now. Tell Miles and May bye for me, ok.”

“Only if you promise that we’ll go hang out this week. No costumes, no heroics, just a couple of bros, doing…whatever bros do.”

He actually cracked a smirk at the lame attempt at sentiment, appreciating the attempt much more than resenting it this time. “Yeah, sure Parker, we’ll do that.”

Peter watched as his friend shot a line to swing away. He sighed, seeing the black dot melt and blend away into the nighttime city. Sometimes he wished things were easier for them, all of them. But this was their normal he guessed; no one ever said being a super hero would be easy.  
\---  
It was getting late at this point; all reasonable people were well situated and deep in their own homes, safe and warm from the outside.

She should probably be sleeping at this point even, but Jessica Jones was a caffeine addict and she had work to do. Her roommate was still up too, taking advantage of the shower in the apartment, while it still worked. So she figured, as long as they were both up, why worry about the time. She had spent the last half an hour (ever since Ben had gone into said shower) trying to crack the encryption on the flash drive she’d acquired earlier in the day. It was easy to pay someone to steal the data, it was harder to get someone to unlock it, and right now, with her little “family” to sport, she was severely lacking in the petty cash to afford going to her usual guy for that particular service. Hitting yet another dead end with the last of her known hacking cheats, she growled slightly, leaning back in her chair, running her hands over her face in frustration. “I hate Oscorp passwords.”

“Hacking Osborn now, are we?”

She looked up, closing her laptop out of habit, finding the brunette coming from the bathroom at last; she must have been so focused that she’d missed the audio cue of the shower turning off (who was the bad P.I. now).

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Why is it that every time you say that, it only makes me suspicious?” he went over to his couch and sat before starting to unpack and repack his backpack for the night.

She got up and stretched, leaving the computer on her seat, “Probably because you’re a paranoid freak,” then she caught her words, “And I meant that because you’re paranoid for nothing, not because of powers and stuff.”

“I know Jones, you don’t have to watch your words with me, remember.”

“Says the one who won’t be the brunt of any super human moodswingy rage.”

For that comment he shot her a hard look, but she either didn’t notice or care, because she did not address it as she went to take her turn in the bathroom for the night before turning in.

That left Ben with the laptop, unguarded. He debated for a moment whether he should grab it or not; on the one hand, anytime he’d gotten involved in one of Jessica’s schemes so far, it’d gone horribly wrong, but on the other, if she was dealing with Oscorp that could lead to things he wasn’t willing to let her find out about. Either way, self-preservation won out, and he grabbed the computer, flipping it open, waking it back up.

He was met with a blue login screen, featuring the Oscorp logo, and the phrase “Welcome Back Mr. Osborn”.

“Great, you actually went for Osborn’s files,” he mumbled, staring at that 5 password just waiting for him.

He closed down that and checked the stats on the flash drive itself. It looked like only a certain batch of files had been taken, and would just be read off o the drive once opened. They had no wfi in the apartment, and it looked like the girl had even turned off her connectivity completely before starting this, so there would be very little chance of any transmissions going in or out of the laptop to Oscorp if and when she got the files unlocked. That wasn’t surprising since he never thought she didn’t know what she was doing, just that she had poor taste in company and contacts.

So he brought back up the login screen, staring again at the password blanks.

“Five letters, Osborn’s password,” he muttered, stroking his chin for a moment to think, “Five…he wouldn’t have, would he?”

It took but a second to type the name “Harry” and hit enter. The login screen shifted then, closing out of the password option and the “Welcome back Mr. Osborn” grew then faded out as the files were unlocked.

“Wow, that’s…wow,” he couldn’t really believe that it was honestly that simple, yet at the same time there was a weird feeling of déjà vu to it…

Before he could click on a file to open it and look at it more closely, his spider sense went off in warning. He quickly snapped the laptop shut and shoved it back onto the seat of the chair and just barely missed his mark to make it back to his couch as the door to the bathroom opened again as the girl came out.

“Something up Reilly?” she asked, pulling her hair back into a ponytail for the night, not missing his slightly awkward pose.

“I, uh, just cramps,” he straightened up, making like he was holding a sore spot on his back.

“Yeah, uhhu,” she didn’t really buy that, but was willing to let it slide, “You want some Midol for that, there’s some in my bag,” she climbed back into her chair, sitting cross legged with the computer in her lap.

“Naw, I just have to move around,” he then put some distance between them, going over to the window.

“Mmmhmm,” she still wasn’t really buying it.

When she opened the laptop back up she couldn’t help the eyebrow rise. She knew she hadn’t managed to crack the encryption. She looked up to Ben’s back, since now he was facing the window looking out and not at her. How exactly had he…?

“You know not to touch my computer right.”

Busted, he knew she knew. But he stayed quiet, didn’t answer her, and she didn’t say anything else. He was thankful that whatever files she had gotten were enough to earn her full attention for at least the moment.

He looked out at the city beyond the window. He caught the briefest a glimpse of a dark figure swinging away in the distance and he felt his heart tighten. It was impossible to avoid reminders of his old life, he knew that. As long as he was in New York, there would be Goblins, and Octopuses, and SHIELD, and Spidermen everywhere he went. So far he’d managed to at least ignore it, but if it was starting to find him again…

“Hey, you alright?”

Jessica’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. He turned away from the window, also realizing he’d moved a hand to cover his stomach while he’d been lost in introspection…or when he’d seen the web slinger…

“Yeah, just…” the hand dropped away; he really hated when he drew attention to himself that way, “Thinking.”

She nodded, closing her computer. “Well, I’m gonna turn in.”

“Not going to pull an all nighter?”

“Pft, why do I need to when my partner in crime is magic apparently.”

He rolled his eyes slightly, going back to his couch, “Sorry.”

“You should be,” she set her laptop away, settling down in her chair to get comfortable, “But you get a pass this time because you did save me a night of work. How’d you do it?”

“Lucky guess,” he settled down now too, drawing his blanket close. “You gonna tell me what it is you’re working on?”

“Thought you didn’t meant to get involved?”

“You said there were no ninjas, so…”

She smirked a little. “I’ll make a PI out of you yet.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”


End file.
